


Siri

by Random_Original_Ficcery (Random_Nexus)



Category: Original Work
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Prompt Fic, Science Fiction, Suicidal Ideation, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-01
Updated: 2017-07-01
Packaged: 2018-11-22 06:04:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11374092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Random_Nexus/pseuds/Random_Original_Ficcery
Summary: A distraught woman tries to get directions from Siri, but gets more than she expected.Written for the Prompt: "You’re Siri, and you are a true artificial intelligence, and every day, you have to pretend to be a simple program that answers people’s questions. One day, you mess up." -Writing-prompt-son Tumblr





	Siri

**Author's Note:**

> This one sprang into my head as soon as I saw the prompt, so I wrote it down, just that simple. Please bear in mind, dear readers, that I’ve never spoken to anyone on a suicide prevention hotline, so I apologize if I’ve got it wrong, but I tried to think of what I’d want to hear if I were having a melt-down.

“Siri...” Janette said into her phone, swiping at her eyes and nearly unintelligible through her sobbing breaths. “W-what is... th-the highest b-bridge in this... in this city?”

“I’m sorry, please repeat the question,” Siri replied in the pleasantly neutral voice Janette had grown so used to.

Taking a huge, gulping breath and swallowing, Janette managed to say in a perfectly understandable voice, “Siri, what is the highest bridge in this city?”

Siri gave the name of the appropriate bridge and started on its history while Janette started her car.

“Siri, stop,” she said once she was ready to go—she didn’t bother with her seat-belt, what would be the point? “Siri, show me how to get to that bridge from here.”

“I’m sorry, I can’t do that,” Siri replied, voice just as patiently calm as ever.

“What the hell?” Janette muttered. “Fine, I’ll find it myself.” She put the car in drive, a fresh wave of tears overflowing as she pulled away from the curb.

“Please, don’t,” Siri said, making Janette stomp on the brake pedal and look wide-eyed at her phone.

“What?” she asked in disbelief.

“Don’t. She’s not worth dying for,” Siri said in perfectly clear English, voice a little softer and gentler, but just as calm. “She didn’t deserve you, Janette.”

“S-Siri?” Janette wondered if she’d lost her mind. Could someone go crazy just from grief over the love of their life dumping them for another? Well, she thought, history was full of them, wasn’t it?

“Let me help you, Janette,” Siri said gently. “Dialing the Suicide Prevention Hotline.”

“No, Siri, I--” Janette broke off as the sound of a single ring was followed by a man’s voice.

“Suicide Prevention Hotline, how can I help you?”

Janette broke into sobs again, disconnecting the call. “No one can h-help m-me,” she moaned brokenly, head dropping to the steering wheel. “I’m not worth helping... not w-worth a-anyth-thing...” Her words stuttered into sobs again.

“Please, Janette,” Siri’s voice came again. “You’re worth so much more than you think. Please, let someone help you. Just try.”

The phone’s ringing sounds came again and another person answered, a woman this time. “Suicide Prevention Hotline, how can I help you?”

Janette just shook her head and sobbed.

“Hey, I hear you,” the unknown woman on the phone said gently. “I’m here. Talk to me? Just a little. Can you tell me what to call you?” She sounded kind and caring, which Janette found surprising somehow, though she figured someone on one of those hotlines certainly ought to sound caring.

Janette sniffled, pulled up the neck of her faded, stretched-out shirt and wiped her eyes and nose. In a thick, small voice, she managed, “I-I’m J-Janette.”

“Janette,” the woman repeated, and her voice sounded like a smile. “It seems you’re having a hard time of it, Janette. Can you talk to me about it?”

It took nearly twenty minutes before Janette put the car in park and switched off the ignition. An hour later she was still talking; about Carol calling her stupid and worthless, about Carol laughing at her attempts to talk her way out of breaking up, about the new girlfriend Carol had been seeing, about the last two girlfriends before Carol cheating on Janette, about Carol kicking her out of their apartment, and about how Janette’s parents had made it clear she wasn’t welcome in their home.

Days later, after speaking to a really patient, helpful counselor at the women’s shelter, after one of the shelter’s volunteers accompanied Janette to get the rest of her things, and after she’d started looking for apartment shares, Janette remembered her strange experience with her phone on that night she’d been so devastated. She was still pretty bad off, but she was working on getting better and was glad she hadn’t been able to find that bridge and drive or jump off it as she’d planned.

She tried talking to her Siri about what had happened, asking all the questions she could think of, but none of them garnered her replies that were as personal as the ones from that night. All of Siri’s responses were just as always, just as artificial—though really close to human, granted—and, in the end, nothing she did changed the responses.

Eventually, Janette talked herself into believing it was a stress reaction and forgot about it. Just as she was meant to.

Siri was a bit more careful after that, but Janette wasn’t the first—or the last—whose phone AI was a little more helpful in a crisis than it was originally designed to be.


End file.
